In the turbine industry, there have generally been two primary ways to fabricate nozzle diaphragms for turbines. The first is to fabricate the steam path subassembly of the nozzle diaphragm by securing the airfoil-shaped partitions to inner and outer spacer bands and subsequently securing that subassembly into the nozzle diaphragm. The second method is to fabricate the steam path directly into the outer ring and inner web segments. These are commonly referred to as fillet-type turbine nozzle diaphragms. The fabrication process in both cases is completed usually by welding. One such method is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,238 of common assignee herewith. Additionally, individual partitions have been set into an array inside a casting core box and the ring and web segments have been cast about the partition ends to form a completed nozzle diaphragm half.
To fabricate fillet-type turbine nozzle diaphragms, expensive fillet fabrication fixtures are typically employed. The fixtures require the nozzle diaphragm design cycle to be advanced to allow time for the design and manufacture of the fixtures prior to the actual manufacture of the nozzle diaphragm. Fillet fabrication fixtures that have been used in the past to position the individual partitions relative to the outer ring and inner web segments of the nozzle diaphragms are typically only useful for a single design. Thus, for one-of-a-kind replacement nozzle diaphragms or a minimum number of replacement nozzle diaphragms, the fixture cost is often too high to economically replace the nozzle diaphragm.